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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has apologised to European conservative parties for calling them "useful idiots" over an anti-EU billboard campaign that could see his party ejected from the European Parliament's dominant centre-right EPP bloc.

In a newspaper interview earlier this month, Orban called critics within the EPP "useful idiots" and accused them of helping the group's leftwing and liberal opponents ahead of European Parliament elections in May.

"I would hereby like to express my apologies, if you found my quote personally offensive," Orban said in his letter to the Belgian Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V) party which was published by the De Standaard newspaper.

In the letter, Orban asked party leaders to "reconsider your proposal for expulsion".

While Fidesz "do not wish to change our own position... on the issue of migration, the protection of Christian culture and the future of Europe", disagreements should not be solved by expelling a party "from our political family", he said.